Hugo Distler

DISTLER, Hugo. b. Nürnberg, 24 Jun 1908; d. Berlin, 1 Nov 1942. Distler was educated in Nürnberg, where he also trained as a musician. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatoire (1927-30), quickly replacing conducting and piano studies with organ and composition, the two areas in which he later made his name. He was taught composition by Hermann Grabner and organ by Friedrich Högner, a member of the Orgelbewegung, who taught him the sound and style of the German protestant tradition of the 16th-18th centuries. J.S. Bach* and Heinrich Schütz* were particularly influential on him. Distler became organist of Lübeck’s Jakobikirche in 1931. He joined the National Socialist party in 1933, although...